North-West Rebellion

The North-West Rebellion, also known as
the second Riel Rebellion or the Saskatchewan
Rebellion, took place in Saskatchewan's
Qu'Appelle River valley in 1885 and was closely
related to the earlier Métis resistance at Red
River, Manitoba, in 1869–70.

After the Red River Resistance, Louis Riel
fled to the United States to escape arrest. With
their leader labeled a traitor, the Métis of
Manitoba were now seen by the Canadian
government as squatters on potential homestead
lands. Stripped of their lands, and seeing
few alternatives, the majority of the Métis
people moved farther west along the Saskatchewan
River system into what is now Saskatchewan
and Alberta (then the Northwest Territories).

By 1884 the Northwest was home to several
thousand Native and Métis peoples. Joining
them were a large number of non-Native settlers,
recent arrivals from the Canadian provinces,
giving a total population of about 10,000
people. In this period the Northwest Territories
were administered by a lieutenant governor
appointed in Ottawa and a small council
made up of appointed and elected representatives.
By 1884 the number of elected representatives
on the council numbered only five, and
the residents of the region did not have territorial
representation in the federal House of
Commons or Senate.

In the Prince Albert.Batoche area, the
Métis and non-Native settlers alike were discontented.
Many of them had moved from the
Red River region more than a decade earlier to
establish prosperous farms along the South
Saskatchewan River. Conflict over land tenure,
hunting reserves, government surveys,
tariff structures, and frustration from the absence
of government representation led the
Métis and whites to organize in 1884. As no
clear leader emerged, the Métis sent a delegation
to Montana to ask Louis Riel to return to
unite the English- and French-speaking Native,
white, and Métis residents of the region.
Riel, now an American citizen, agreed, and he
arrived in Batoche amid much fanfare in May
1884. At the same time, the Plains Crees, under
the leadership of chiefs Big Bear and Poundmaker,
also began to demand the renegotiation
of their treaties.

In a move reminiscent of his Red River
days, Riel took up the reins to lead the white
and Métis settlers, challenging the legitimacy
of the Canadian government in the Northwest
and proclaiming the formation of a provisional
Métis government at Batoche in March
1885.

On March 26 a detachment of the North-
West Mounted Police at Fort Carlton (twenty
miles from Batoche) sent 100 men to Duck
Lake to head off a possible attack and to prevent
the Métis from seizing arms and ammunition
stored there. Gabriel Dumont and a large
group of Métis met the Mounted Police at
Duck Lake, and in the resulting skirmish the
Métis killed twelve Mounties and wounded another
eleven.

The Duck Lake victory (often called the
Duck Lake Massacre by non-Natives) rallied
the Native troops and convinced the Crees to
join forces with Riel. Cree chiefs Big Bear and
Poundmaker tried to maintain calm within
the tribes, but the Duck Lake victory had emboldened
many of the young Cree warriors
who laid siege to Fort Battleford on the North
Saskatchewan River. On April 2, 1885, a group
of warriors from Big Bear's band attacked the
Hudson's Bay Company post at Frog Lake,
killing nine non-Native men. Within a few
days, the Canadian government sent forces to
Batoche, Battleford, and Frog Lake. The main
force under Maj. Gen. Frederick Middleton
took Batoche on May 12, where Riel surrendered
on May 15. Poundmaker surrendered on
May 12 and Big Bear on July 2.

Immediately upon his capture, the Canadians
brought Riel to Regina for trial. On July
31, 1885, the all-white jury convicted Riel of
treason, ignoring both his American citizenship
and questions regarding his sanity. Despite
a huge public uproar in the province of
Quebec, Louis Riel was hanged on November
16, 1885. He was followed to the gallows eleven
days later by eight of the Cree warriors who
had been involved in the North-West Rebellion.

The Métis gained little from the rebellion.
Many of their leaders fled to Montana or were
jailed. Citizens of the Northwest received representation
in Parliament, but the Métis were
forced to either assimilate or move still farther
to the margins. The Crees, forced to settle
their treaty claims as best they could, suãered
under the tightened control of western Indian
agents and were relegated to reserve lands,
where their death rates climbed rapidly and
their population fell dramatically over the
next five decades.